Meet my new buddy: The Plunge Router

Yesterday I was over at my friend Susan's for a dish of her kick ass linguini and clams (perhaps she'll read this, and post the excellent recipe?), and I told her I was planning on building a bookcase.

"Cool!" she says. "Do you want to borrow my router?"

No, actually, I bought a cool new plunge router at the HD yesterday. Today, I whipped it out and built a new 8-foot bookcase for the backroom.

Here it is, the before & after:

The Maw

Check out this giant hole in the basement floor. I was going to patch it tonite, but it's supposed to snow. For reasons I don't quite understand, you're not supposed to pour concrete during freezing temps.

Good News, Blues Fans

It turns out that the gaping maw (otherwise known as "the hole" or "the cavern") in the basement floor is not a big structural problem. The basement dude came by yesterday to take a look and his verdict was "jam some concrete down in there." You could see he was sorry that he couldn't find some big problem he could fix and bill me for. I wish I'd taken his picture for posterity.

So today I excavated the hole a bit as recommended, and tomorrow I'll be filling it with some concrete. Here's another nearby hole I already patched -- it was nowhere near as big as The Maw.

(Photos of The Maw tk).

Tricking out the Tripmobile

Here at last are some pix of the platform I built. Yesterday I stained it a lovely mahogany, and today I'll be lacquering it, as it doesn't seem to be losing its funky raw wood smell over time. Also, we won't have to worry about spilling water on it, or about mold (I don't think) if I lacquer it.